I walk into Robbie's home in Orange and look down on a boy so frail and small it's difficult to believe he is nearly the same age as a strapping 13-year-old I visited with the day before.

As we settle in at the table, I ask Robbie how he feels about Little League not allowing him to remain in a younger division. He shrugs his shoulders and smiles.

Born two months premature and weighing 4 pounds at birth, Robbie is used to adversity.

Robbie grins from under the brim of his black cap. The hat is big and bends his ears down. Robbie declines to take it off. That's understandable.

The cap is for the White Sox AAA team, the younger division that Robbie's father manages and Robbie hopes to play for.

Yes, dad manages and Little League still says no. Robbie has aged out and must move to the majors division, mostly 11- and 12-year-olds.

To understand the ruling is difficult even for Little League veterans. Yes, the Aguirres are a baseball family.

Robbie's dad, Richard, has been an assistant coach or managed Robbie's teams for six years. A Mater Dei High graduate, he's also helped coach his older son's teams.

Martha serves on the board of the local Little League, Olive. She tells me, "We just want Robbie to join in and participate for this one year, just one season."

Why not go on to majors later?

Martha, who graduated from Los Amigos High School in Fountain Valley explains Robbie will – and I hate writing this word – never be able to play safely at the majors level.

• • •

In October, the board of Olive Little League voted unanimously to request the waiver for Robbie to remain in the lower division.

The request was sent all the way up to Little League International, which kicked it back to the West Region.

On Jan. 23, Martha received Little League regional's answer in an email: "The charter committee denied the waiver request."

To be sure, the committee is made up of experts far more knowledgeable about baseball than I. But there are experts far more knowledgeable about Robbie than the committee.

In support of the waiver, one doctor wrote that Robbie "should remain on his current team, even though he is now 12 years old."

Another doctor, Sarah O'Loughlin, explained that Robbie "has short stature, 1 percent for his age. His height is average for an 8-year-old boy. His weight is proportional to his height ... he is a better match for the younger level baseball."

• •

During his young life, Robbie has come to know more doctors than teachers.

The challenges that go with being a preemie were only the beginning. And a 4-inch-long scar on the back of Robbie's neck is only part of his story.

As his mom puts it: "He's had a hard life. He just doesn't give up; he doesn't let anything that comes his way knock him down."

As a newborn, he developed inner ear problems that left him with difficulties hearing certain tones. As a result, Robbie's speech is slightly impaired.

At one year and seven months, toddler Robbie appeared to be developing normally. Then he could no longer walk. His head bent to one side.

After weeks of tests, doctors determined Robbie had something called "cervical instability." It meant that the first and second vertebrae just below his neck were unstable.

Martha was told she had two options: One, do nothing and Robbie would struggle just to sit up the rest of his life. Two, insert a titanium U bar with bolts and cables.

But the delicate operation was so close to Robbie's spine, it left a strong chance that he would be paralyzed.

Martha, an employee at the public defender's office, tells me, "I thought he wouldn't walk again." But mom knew she had no choice.

The operation was a success. But it left Robbie with limited head movement. He can turn his head only 20 degrees to each side.

Robbie also emerged with nerve damage down his spine that causes the limp. A trooper, Robbie giggles when he tells me how much he falls down.

Then four years ago, Robbie was rolling around the grass with other kids after practice. Suddenly, he gasped for air. He couldn't breathe. He whispered, "Mommy, I don't want to die."

Within minutes, his lips were blue.

By the time doctors managed to get him breathing, Martha says, one lung was accidentally punctured, the other collapsed.

Robbie was diagnosed with exceptionally severe asthma caused by exceptionally severe allergies. He was put on a ventilator and placed in a drug-induced coma for 14 days.